Things have been crazy busy for the beginning of the year, and I should totally catch you guys up on books I’m reviewing over at City Book Reviews, but for now, take a look at these four books that I totally recommend you should read:

ONE

John Scalzi’s Lock In was an absolute blast and I can’t wait for its sequel coming out this year. In a not so far future, an epidemic has swept across the globe, leaving millions of people completely paralyzed and entirely conscious. Its been long enough by the time we get to this book that people are well taken care of and neurological science has advanced far enough that the locked in people, or Haydens as they are referred to, have the ability to participate in online worlds and network with robotic bodies to interface with the world. This novel is a buddy cop drama featuring a Hayden in his robot body and his first week on the job as an FBI agent. Needless to say, it is a very rocky first week. This book had me laughing out loud repeatedly and I have the sequel reserved from the library for the moment it comes out.

TWO

The third installment of Nnedi Okorafor’s Bintiis just as engaging and fun as the first two novellas. If you haven’t picked this series up yet, do it, this conclusion is completely satisfying and well worth the time. I love how math is so advanced its basically magic at this point. I also love how, for once, I’m reading a far-off science fiction that takes into account tribal cultures that still exist and flourish and how that might impact future societal relations. So much fun.

THREE

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Nisi Shawl’s Everfair, as I am not normally a fan of alternative histories, but this was seriously well done. We maintain a discreet distance from the action, following a host of characters over the first few decades of a new country, Everfair, which was purchased away from King Leopold in an effort to rescue the Congo from his rubber trade as well as create a refuge for freed slaves. It a fascinating look at how cultures collide and what would have happened if the natural talents that were, in our history, destroyed, but here allowed to flourish. Its a bit quieter in tone and if you have trouble following multiple narratives or large time jumps, this probably isn’t the book for you, but it was certainly an interesting thought experiment.

FOUR

Saved the best for last! Michael Strelow recently released his newest novel, Some Assembly Required, and it is a mind trip. To begin with, our narrator straight up informs us that he hears voices, no, not those kinds of voices, rather innocuous ones, but that definitely leaves the reader with some questions. It’s a fun, stream-of-consciousness adventure of this journalist/writer trying to figure out what is happening with a particularly odd science experiment in his home town. I can’t say much more before ruining the plot, so that’s all you get. I love the themes this explore about determination and evolution, and I definitely think it’s a fun read for those of the more science minded among us.